Racism has nothing to do with its victim, but they suffer the effects of it. It is about a faulty sense of self on the part of the racist. It is about seeking validation by making others out to be less than you. In other words, making oneself feel good or superior, by making others feel bad or inferior. Within societal racism, it is about making someone a "them" in order that "us" can take unfair advantage, usually economic. It is not about the color of skin. African descended peoples do not have sole claim on this one. That is just in the US. Ask the Irish Catholic, both in the States and Ireland. I often chuckle when I am informed by some well intentioned Irish American that the reason some black people have Irish surnames is because they came from a plantation that was owned by an Irishman. No, dear one, it is because they were both the underclass and often lived together and had children together.

Individual racism is about poor self worth. Societal racism is about economics. It allows the capitalist to take advantage of the underclass' labor for the benefit of his/her profit margin. If African descended slave had never come to this country, it would be some other group of "they".

My individual response to racism is to point out that it is the sign of an ignorant person and a lack of intellect. Gets me in a bind once in a while, most especially when I point this out in a room full of racists, but that is what makes life fun to live **chuckle**.

Just sitting here thinking about this, and thinking about how rich my life experience is due to being exposed to and having friends from so many cultural backgrounds, I can't help but pity these ignorant souls for their racist ignorance. But the pity is tempered, indeed overcome, by my outrage at the treatment afforded to folks whose only guilt is the amount of melanin in their skin, or their religion, or their country of origin. When I think of four little girls singing hymns in a church, or the little Catholic schoolgirls walking to school through a torrent of verbal filth and garbage being thrown at them, I know that benign action is not the answer. Our response to racism must be intellectual, but also visceral. It must be to speak out, and if necessary, to strike out against it. No child should ever face this, because of what, by the grace of God, they were born to be.

Mick